As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption; mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery.-- Marriner Eccles

The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.-- Neil deGrasse Tyson/2015 (possibly earlier)

There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they're going to take the money they're saving and reinvest it in American workers. In fact they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses; there's no evidence whatsoever that they[sic] money's been massively poured back into the American worker.-- Marco Rubio (darling of the Right)/2018

16 September 2015

On The Road To Bermuda

Hard to imagine, or may be not, what the Hope and Crosby comedy romp "On The Road To Bermuda" might have looked like. But we're seeing a real time version, except rather than those two old ham cut-ups making silly puns, it's China trying to broadjump from largely rural subsistence farming economy to financial manipulation expert.

It ain't working, of course. Yes, China has accumulated oodles of foreign tender, and acts as today's version of 19th century New England company towns. But the fact is: Bermuda, and the other island predators, are able to exist simply because they are tiny populations in the middle of nowhere. They are allowed to exist because international banking wants them. China is none of those. It does have that substantial manufacturing sector.

The Shanghai index jumped in a few minutes at the end of the day:

Remarkably, the Composite was down 0.6% roughly 90 minutes before the end of the session. A late spike in buying interest, however, turned the tide in a big way. While there were some headlines that could ostensibly be cited as a catalyst for the late surge (eg. PBOC Chief Economist making uplifting remarks about the economy), it was generally regarded as a government-backed move.
source: briefing.com

Doesn't Beijing know that only the USofA is allowed to act like the Banker to the Rest of the World?